walking upstream…
The Creation
The Creation
The Creation were an English mod-turned-psychedelic band — singer Kenny Pickett and guitarist Eddie Phillips chief among them — who emerged from the Hertfordshire beat group the Mark Four in 1966. Loud and art-conscious, and built around Phillips's violin-bow guitar technique (borrowed a year later by Jimmy Page), their brief catalog, including ‘Making Time’ and ‘Painter Man,’ outsized their commercial run and left a mark on bands from Led Zeppelin to Oasis.
the sound in question
1966
Making TimeThe Creation
walk the tributaries ↓
Chuck Berry1950s · Rock and roll / Rhythm and blues
Phillips named Chuck Berry directly as one of the formative sounds that hit him as a teenager in the mid-1950s, before he ever picked up a guitar bow — the riff-driven backbone of early rock and roll that underlies the Creation's guitar attack.
listen: upstream & heresource: Bandcamp Daily — Eddie Phillips interview naming Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly as formative influences ↗
1958
Johnny B. GoodeChuck Berry
1966
Making TimeThe Creation
listen forListen for the chugging, riff-based rhythm guitar under ‘Making Time’ — the same duckwalk-era drive Berry pioneered, sped up and roughened for a mid-60s mod audience.
Little Richard1950s · Rock and roll / R&B
Guitarist Eddie Phillips toured with Little Richard in the early 1960s and spoke of the experience in awed terms; that raw, shrieking rock and roll energy fed directly into the Creation's loud, aggressive live sound.
listen: upstream & heresource: Bandcamp Daily — Eddie Phillips interview naming Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly as formative influences ↗
1955
Tutti FruttiLittle Richard
1967
How Does It Feel to FeelThe Creation
listen forListen for the same unhinged vocal intensity and driving backbeat in the Creation's own uptempo material — a direct line from Little Richard's stage presence to the band Phillips built.
Buddy Holly1950s · Rock and roll / Rockabilly / Pop
Phillips singled out seeing Buddy Holly perform live as one of the best nights of his life, part of the wave of late-1950s rock and roll that shaped his sense of songcraft before the Creation's more experimental turn.
listen: upstream & heresource: Bandcamp Daily — Eddie Phillips interview naming Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly as formative influences ↗
1957
Peggy SueBuddy Holly
1966
Painter ManThe Creation
listen forListen for the tight, hook-driven verse-chorus structure under the Creation's fuzz and bowed-guitar textures — a pop songwriting instinct descended from Holly's economical singles.